“It’s unacceptable to just spend money on the Asian Games without telling the Guangzhou People’s Congress Standing Committee (GPCSC) how much the expenditure!”

Today, during GPCSC group discussion about Guangzhou municipal government’s Report on the Organizing Work of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and Asian Para Games, many committee members complained about a lack of information on sources and destinations of the funds for the two Games.

“This is not even a rough number!” said a committee member. Some members proposed that these information be available to the committee no matter how much the expenditure and where the sources of the funds.

“No one is clear about how much the Asian Games will cost,” said Deng Chengming, a committee member, during the discussion. “Some said it will cost RMB 200 billion. But there’s not an official number yet.”

Deng expressed that because the two Games are financed by companies and their funds not included in the government’s budget, the Guangzhou Finance Bureau has no idea about how much they could cost. But the Guangzhou municipal government needs to make this clear to the People’s Congress so as to be supervised by the Congress and society.

“We cannot supervise the Organizing Committee. But the municipal government needs to tell us what’s going on.” Deng also suggest Guangzhou alert the central government about its expenditure on the Games. “Doesn’t the central government have RMB 2 trillion left to spend? Can we fork over some for the Games? Hosting the Asian Games is not only something on the agenda of Guangzhou, but also of the whole nation.”

Earlier on SCMP:

Government departments at all levels across the mainland are expected to go on a spending spree in coming weeks in a final push to use up as much as 2 trillion yuan (HK$2.27 trillion), or about a quarter of the annual fiscal spending budget that remains unused in state coffers.

Analysts warned the frenzied spending would inevitably lead to widespread misappropriation or waste of taxpayers’ money, or in some instances, embezzlement of public funds.

Previously:

• If You Build it, They Won’t Come
• One Year to the Asian Games, Guangzhou Still Not Getting There
• Lacking Sponsors, Guangzhou Asks Beijing for Help on the Asian Games

Links and Sources:

• Guangzhou Daily via NetEase: Guangzhou People’s Congress asks for transparency over expenditure on the Asian Games. (Chinese)
• South China Morning Post: 2 trillion yuan spree looms on mainland (subscription req’ed)

There is no question that large, global sporting events can help change the image of a city. Governments use the spectacles as a means to redevelop or invest further in a city’s infrastructure. South Africa proposed a nine billion rand — or about 1.7 billion USD — budget on city infrastructure projects for next year’s World Cup. According to the Beijing Organizing Committee, the 2008 Olympic Games saw about 60 billion USD invested in city-wide infrastructure projects, which included new stadium venues for the sporting events.

Last week, the article “Sloppy Services Bode Ill for Guangzhou’s Asian Games,” which appeared on the Global Times and was reported by China Sport’s Review’s David Yang, noted that Guangzhou would spend approximately 29 billion on infrastructure throughout the city, and an additional 900 million USD on stadium construction and renovations, in preparation for the athletic events in 2010.

China continues to show willingness to play host to several international sporting events, as well as increasingly popular national athletic endeavors. As mentioned, there are the 16th Annual Asian Games in Guangzhou. The 2009 East Asian Games are currently taking place in Hong Kong until Dec. 13.

Nanjing, which bid and was eventually eliminated for consideration as the host city for the 2012 Youth Winter Olympic Games, is currently in the bidding process for the 2014 Youth Summer Olympic Games. Even animatronics is getting into the mix, as 2010 will also see Harbin play host to the Robot Games, where androids designed from more than 100 universities worldwide will compete.

Apparent in the infrastructure bubble that takes place in cities around China that are vying for the chance to host a major sporting competition is that chinks are beginning to arise in just how productive and profitable a host city can be in the years after the athletics have moved on. Just recently, China Daily reported the city of Harbin gave up on its plan to bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, saying that a push by the People’s Republic to host a winter Olympic Games event was “premature.”

Beijing’s crown jewel of sporting events, the 2008 Olympic Games, cost a reported 400 billion RMB, with 12 venues constructed for the two-week event. A 2006 New York Times article titled “The China Syndrome” noted the original budget for the National Stadium was about 500 billion USD, yet the Bird’s Nest currently sits toiling just north of the city center.

Long-term use of Olympic venues has always been the Achilles heel of hosting the event, but in China’s case, where the country is taking on larger sporting events, when infrastructure includes new stadiums and sporting venues, what is happening to these places after the games have finished?

In January, USA Today reported the Bird’s Nest is still searching for a permanent tenant, has yet to hold a major sporting event, and there are doubts the stadium will ever recoup the 450 million USD the government spent to construct the architectural wonder.

According to an Oct. 2005 Reuters article, the budget for the 2005 China National Games held in Jiangsu province was roughly one-third of the 2008 Olympic Games spending, and the Nanjing Olympic Sports Stadium —constructed in 2002 and an integral part of the 2005 China National Games — according to the stadium’s official Web site is now used almost exclusively for local events.

chinaSMACK, which translates “hot topics” on Chinese Internet forums and Chinese news reports, reported that in addition to the myriad of scandals at the 11th National Games held in Shandong during the month of October, the total cost and construction for the event totaled 200 billion RMB, including the Jinan Olympic Sports Center, a 60,000-seat stadium that was the centerpiece of the National Games.

China Daily reported in 2008 that Harbin needed three more stadiums built — at a price tag of 370 million USD — for the 24 Winter Universiade, which featured 4,000 athletes from 50 countries. And the East Asia Games, according to the secretary of home affairs’ home page, saw renovations on the three stadiums in Hong Kong, costing about 240 million USD.

The question surrounding all these monumental athletic venues is who plays in them going forward? The China Basketball Association, the country’s most visible sport, lost 17 million USD overall during the last season, according to an Economist Intelligence Report released in October. The People’s Republic currently has no homegrown athletic teams in any sport that can fill stadiums to capacity on a weekly basis.

Both the National Basketball Association, Premier League and the National Football League have made attempts to bring games to China, but the results have been marginal: a few preseason NBA and Major League Baseball games, an outright rejection to ship Premier League games outside of Europe, and two cancellations by the NFL.

China’s sports powerhouse ambitions, while praiseworthy on the field, have yielded few positive results for long-term sporting events. Yes, major international competitions take time and planning, but China has the infrastructure in place to do more with its sporting venues,  and tying its infrastructure plans to major sporting events should draw continued usage for years after.

— Zachary Franklin

Here’s a piece that I wrote for the Global Times about its unreadiness and, in case you don’t have time, my points below as to where the city can further improve itself:

• Taxi service: Do not reject passengers, at least don’t do this five in a row.
• Language help: Build more English signs for the buses, subways, etc., and offer basic English training to restaurant staff.
• Outlaw animal brutality and cat-eating

My friends in Guangzhou think the taxi and language problems can be solved before next November, but I do hope the city can offer more to an ordinary tourist like me with or without the Games, as it’s more about being a modern metropolis than preparing for a sporting event.

The cat-eating thing made me sick. It’s been reported over and over and will likely to remain so until the Guangdong provincial government finds a better animal for replacement, which looks impossible.

Links and Sources:

• WSJ China Real Time: Cats Rescued from Dinner Table Face Uncertain Futures
• Xinhua: 1,300 cats rescued from dinner table
• Global Times: Sloppy services bode ill for Guangzhou’s Asian Games

Qian competes in show jumping at the Beijing Games.

Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan Province, is to host the Modern Pentathlon World Championships next summer from Aug.10 to 16. The construction of the 370,000-square-meter China Pentathlon Competition Center kicked off yesterday in Shuangliu County in the city, where the combination of pistol shooting, running, swimming, horse jumping and fencing will be played.

“It’s the 1st time that the World Championships will come to Asia,” said Jiang Guofeng, the director of China Pentathlon Association to China Sports Review. “There’s also modern pentathlon events for us at Guangzhou Asian Games next year, and we will strive to host as many tournaments as possible in the future.”

Qian Zhenhua (钱震华), the country’s most notable pentathlon athlete, claimed gold in the 2005 Warsaw World Championships. The 29-year-old ranked 4th in the Beijing Games, the best ever result for China in the Olympics.  Qian practiced swimming for nine years in Xuhui District Sports School in Shanghai since 1985, and shifted to Shanghai Pentathlon Team in 1994. Like him, all of China’s pentathlon athletes were swimmers or runners in local sports schools.

“We now have about 180 pentathlon athletes in the country. A small number compared with other sports,” said Jiang. “The thing is there’s no pentathlon athletes in ground-level sports schools as the schools can’t afford to have horses.”

Aside from the concern about horses, the difficulty of getting more young athletes trained under the juguo system might be compounded by the seeming complexity of coaching pentathlon athletes. To China’s sports officials, putting money and resources into sports like table tennis and badminton in which the country outplays others might look more cost-effective.

Photo:  Jiangxi Daily

Related reads:

• The New York Times:  Modern Pentathlon Gets a Little Less Penta
• BBC:  GB quartet win pentathlon bronze

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• Gao Hongbo was named as new coach of China Men’s Soccer Team, the youngest man to take the helm in 30 years.

• Bernie Ecclestone backs the future of Shanghai GP.

• Xinjiang joined Guangdong in the CBA finals, defeating Jiangsu 97-90 to win its series 3-1.

• New Jersey Nets international Yi Jianlian will return to China to compete at the Asian Championships in August.

• Chinese tennis star Li Na has called for an overhaul of the nation’s famously rigid sports programme.

• Volleyball player Ding Hui, born in Hangzhou to a South African father and a Chinese mother, becomes the first mixed-race athlete selected for one of China’s national sports teams.

• Guangzhou to start recruiting more than 560,000 volunteers for 2010 Asian Games.

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Soojin Cho, front with back to camera, founder and head coach of the Soojin Dance Team, looks on as her team runs through a routine.

Soojin Cho stands looking at the stereo system inside her Jianwai SOHO dance studio, bouncing her weight from one foot to the other. Her shoulders pop every so often with the heavy bass of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” blaring throughout the room. It is one of the rare moments she has to herself, and she dances through the piece she will have her dance team run through most of Saturday.

The members of the team trickle in beginning at 10 a.m. Cho pays them no mind. She’s got a routine to run through, and she’s making the most out of a moment she nearly never gets to enjoy nowadays.

“I’m too old to be performing with the women,” she says, laughing. “I watch basketball games now, I’m not part of the cheerleading squad. Spectators want to see young women, not me.”

A decade ago, Cho started the first professional dance team in China. Now the country has hundreds of teams to choose from, but the Soojin Dance Team is recognized as the best squad in the People’s Republic, a team that is sought after nearly every time a professional sporting event takes place on the mainland.

MLB, NFL, NBA, FIFA World Cup — check. China Basketball Association, where Cho was the national director of cheerleading between 2002 and 2005 — check. 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, where Cho was the chief advisor and choreographer for all sports venue performances, a nice title that means she was in charge of some 300 cheerleading squads that were flown in from all over China to perform during the Beijing events — check.

Kim Youngkung, front wearing pink, assistant coach for the Soojin Dance Team, gets the other women moving together at practice.

Cho is the mother of modern cheerleading in China. The South Korean who immigrated to China in 1994 to continue with higher education started a dance aerobics program only to be the one to change the face of cheerleading. But Cho’s story has also been told, several times. In early January 2008, China Daily ran a story on the history of Soojin Dance Team. And in December 2008, CCTV’s People television program followed the team in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

In a performance sport such as cheerleading, where a group acts as one moving unit, it is easy to single out Cho. She’s the coach. She speaks for the team. But this is about a team that is in the midst of redesigning its identity and turning the best dance team in the country into its most professional. This is about a group of women that show an unconditional love for dance when they step out on the floor, giving nothing less than everything in the name of teamwork. This is about working the hardest, training the most and truly understanding what dedication means. It is not about Cho, but about the women she is training and the future she wants for them.

Where the Unit Becomes One

Two women stand facing a group of about 30 cheerleaders. They are tasked with dancing in front of the Soojin Dance Team. That’s the test one must go through in order to make it on Cho’s squad. Team members line up against the mirrored wall every Wednesday if there are new women trying out and vote on a slip of paper whether or not potential dancers make the cut. It is a democratic system, and one that takes into account more than just skill.

Liu Qinning pauses to listen to instructions from Cho during practice. At 33-years-old, she is one of the oldest members on the team. "I feel like I am 19 again when I dance with the others," she says. "We're all the same age when we step out on the floor."

“It is based on both moves and attitude,” says Cho. “And here, attitude is everything. If they look like they have a poor or arrogant attitude when standing in front of the group, the girls are not going to accept them.”

Both women will end up making the team.

Joining Soojin Dance is just the start for those looking to stand toe-to-toe with everyone else on the squad. Every Monday and Wednesday the team undergoes two-hour evening practices. Saturday is a five-hour practice. Additionally, if a cheerleader has worked hard and showed dedication, they could be asked to travel to other cities across China for events. At the Wednesday evening tryouts, 10 team members are in Qingdao and three other cheerleaders are in Tianjin.

This isn’t even a full-time job. All of the women currently on the Soojin team do something else other than cheerleading. They’re students and waitresses, bond traders and yoga teachers. And when the workday is over, they step out on the dance floor and don’t even think twice about complaining.

“I am involved in finance and there is a lot of stress involved,” says Liu Qinning. “I need something exciting in my life. I love dancing and this is so much more relaxing than my normal job.”

The 33-year-old sits maybe once or twice during breaks, but like most of the other women on the team, she stays on her feet trying to stick a certain portion of the song before the group gets back together to practice. Resting just isn’t in the team’s vocabulary.

Zheng Yi, left wearing green, captain for the Soojin Dance Team, runs through an afternoon practice with the other team members.

One of the hardest workers on the team also happens to be a captain. When Cho halts the team for not being together or for one member not getting a particular move correct, 34-year-old Zheng Yi will be the first to fall in line with Cho to rerun through the move, maneuvering her way over to that member who needs a little extra help and demonstrating just how the routine goes. It is a silent, motivational push by the captain.

“That’s one of the reasons she is the captain,” says Cho. “She is someone who dancing did not come naturally to, but she pushes harder to get all the moves right. And that says something about character.”

From the Practice Studio to the Dance Floor

Zhou Xiao Ting, front wearing black, and the other Soojin Dance members listen to Cho as they work through a routine.

“Do you think I am dancing well?” asks Zhou Xiao Ting while walking over during one of the short breaks they’re given in between 40-minute Saturday practice sessions. She’s breathing heavy but trying not to show it. “I just started dancing here, so I don’t think I am dancing as well as the others.”

The 19-year-old from Inner Mongolia stands toward the back when it comes to running through the songs. With two weeks under her belt, she’s finding her place next to the more experienced women. Eventually, Zhou will have the more than 40 dance routines the Soojin Dance Team is expected to know memorized without thinking twice about it.

“My girls love cheerleading, they’re serious when it comes to training,” says Cho. “There are many cheerleading teams in China, but many do not have good teachers or experience.”

Recently, several women who’d been on the team for more than five years switched squads, a practice Cho says rarely happens in cheerleading. Several other team members had to be let go for not following team policies. What Zhou and the newer women represent is renewal in a team that is becoming more professional with every performance.

From the Dance Floor to Center Stage

Nine members of the Soojin Dance Team perform at the CCTV 5 press conference for the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

It could be considered the first day of real spring weather in Beijing, and nine members of the Soojin Dance Team are inside the Shangri-La Hotel about to hit the stage for the CCTV 5 press conference for the 2010 Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou next year.

The line up on either side of the stage where several other performers — singers, dancers, musical performers — will give their best for the television cameras over the next two hours. The Soojin Team has been pushing extra hard this past week, and all that work boils down to about two minutes of dancing on stage.

“We’ve prepared really well for this event,” says Ma Yuan Zheng, one of Soojin’s dancers. “We’re always a little nervous before a performance. And we consider an event such as this just as important as any other event we’d normally do.”

The 25-year-old Ma spent the first half of the day greeting those attending the press conference, more than 150 spectators and credentialed media. Now she stands next to the metal frames around the stage, and when Beyonce comes through the speakers Ma and the rest of the squad’s moves become secondary nature. It is quick. Punchy. And then it is over.

The team splinters after their performance, some stand next to the stage and cheer on speakers before and after their speeches, others head back to the changing rooms around the corner and switch in-and-out with the cheerleaders who stay behind. The captain stays on the floor the whole time, her silent motivation toward the rest of the team.

Making a Lasting Impression

Members of the Soojin Dance Team pose outside the CCTV 5 press conference for the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

Cho and her team are looking into more opportunities in 2009 — including more performances with the CBA. But nothing is set. According to Cho, the team can get asked to do performances sometimes a week in advance, and the schedule is always shifting. But Cho says that the team will see more performances this year than any other year. And in 2010, with both the Asian Games and the Shanghai World Expo coming to the mainland, Cho says her team will have plenty of opportunities to dance.

Either way, Liu, Zheng, Zhou, Ma and the other members will know they’re ready for center stage, no matter where the event is held. They know because they’ve put in the work together. They know because they work harder. They know because they see what it takes to make the best better, and each day brings them all one step closer.

“We dance together, we cry together, we share in each other’s happiness,” says Liu. “And while the performance is important, the most important thing is our health and our camaraderie. And we have that.”

— Zachary Franklin

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The Games will be held from November 11 to 27 in 2010. With 20 months left, Fang Da’er (方达儿), director of the marketing department of the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (GAGOC), said they have so far raised RMB 2 billion (roughly $ 292 million USD). “It’s only two thirds of the total funds needed for the Games, and we can’t guarantee more sponsors would come to us in a short term.” Mr.Fang is afraid that their potential sponsors may lose interests in the Games as the economy crisis prevails in the country. China’s exports plunged by 26 percent in February, as compared to a forecast of 5 percent decline. Its imports fell by 24 percent. “There’re already some companies cancelled their sponsorship plans,” Fang noted.

Xu Ruisheng (许瑞生), vice mayor of Guangzhou and executive deputy secretary general of GAGOC, submitted a proposal at National People’s Congress, the legislative house of China, on March 11 that named “To Support the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Game and the Para-Asian Games by Using the Advantages of the System,” asking the central authority to help solve their financial headache. With unparraled central power, China can expend a great deal of money in a very short period of time. The Beijing Olympics cost at least $ 40 billion USD and the government recently claimed that they made a profit of $ 16 million USD.

Guangzhou won the bid of hosting the 2010 Asian Games in 2004 after its three fellow bidders – Amman, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul – withdrew from the competition. The Games will be co-hosted by Foshan and Shanwei, its two neighboring cities from November 12 to 27. The Para-Asian Games will be held from December 12 to 19, 2010.  For next year’s Games,  GAGOC has already decided to keep the torch relay within China for frugality’s concern.

Previously:

• Beijing Olympics Made $ 16 Million Profit?
• Baijiu Branding, Olympic Style

Related Reads:

• Official Website of the 16th Asian Games
• Reuters: Guangzhou Asian Games torch relay to stay inside China
• China Daily: Sponsors back out of Asiad due to crisis

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